Inositol hexaphosphoric acid, a main component of phytic acid, is a light yellow- or brown-colored syrup state liquid, and is known to be odourless. Structurally, inositol hexaphosphoric acid is a material having inositol as a basic structural body bonding to 6 phosphoric acid (H2PO4) with 12 hydroxyl groups, and thereby having a relatively high molecular weight of 660.03 g/mol.
Phytic acid performs a role of a phosphoric acid storehouse in most plant bodies, and is widely distributed in various plant bodies such as beans, tree fruits and grain hulls. Accordingly, phytic acid may be separated and purified using a waste such as hulls and skins generated when producing processed vegetable foods gone through simple processing such as selecting, molting, cutting and washing, and various technologies for increasing the yield have been actually developed from various plant bodies. Among vegetable crops, a typical plant used for separating and purifying phytic acid is rice, and rice bran among rice. Rice is a major crop widely consumed in the Asia regions, and six million tons of rice is annually produced worldwide, and only endosperm corresponding to approximately 70% of rice is taken as a grain, and the remaining rice husk (approximately 20%), rice bran (approximately 8%), rice germ (approximately 2%) and the like are inevitably produced as by-products. Phytic acid is a nature-derived material capable of being obtained in non-edible parts (husk, inside skin and the like) of not only rice, but beans or nut products such as beans, walnuts, pine nuts and peanuts in 1 to 9% yield, and studies on the economic availability thereof have been required.
Phytic acid in the fields of beauty cares, medicines and foods has been used as antioxidants, anti-cancer materials (colorectal cancer suppressing function), antiobesity drugs (fatty acid suppressing function), renal stone medicines (mineral chelating function) and the like, and particularly in the field of beauty cares, products commercialized in various concentrations and ratios have been in the market for preventing acne or skin troubles. In the field of food industry, when phytic acid-containing food is taken, the phytic acid adsorbs vital minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc and potassium, and forms insoluble complex in the body, and is determined as an antinutrient with reports of nonnutritive metabolism such as vital mineral utility and protein absorption decline in the body. In Korea, phytic acid is listed as a food additive (natural additive 91), and is normally used in canned foods, beverages, fermented foods, fish meat pastes and noodles as a fermentation agent and a chelating agent, and is used as a struvite inhibitor and a darkening inhibitor in marine product canned foods.
Meanwhile, Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) is a representative food poisoning bacteria brought into a human digestive organ, and causing serious food poisoning by producing verotoxins and inducing intestinal hemorrhage, and is highly toxic having an infective dose of 100 or less per g or ml, and may cause complications such as hemolytic uremic syndrome and thrombotic thrombocytopenia leading to early treatment failure. EHEC is normally discovered in animals, and particularly in intestines of cattle, and as a result, food poisoning occurs due to EHEC infection from under-cooked meat or processed meat product intake, or due to the intake of fresh foods cross-contaminated from contaminated animal food materials or food processing place surfaces. Particularly, EHEC has strong resistance to acid, and is counted as a main cause of food poisoning related to acid foods of pH 4.5 or lower such as apple juice, cucumber pickles and mustard sauce, and has been reported to induce acid adaptation when exposed to acidic environments for a long time causing an increase for acid resistance, and accordingly, new technologies for effectively disinfecting and controlling EHEC has been required.
Despite sufficient potential of phytic acid as a natural antimicrobial agent, there have been almost no advanced development cases on antimicrobial agents having phytic acid as a main component. Korean Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 1998-0013754 discloses an antimicrobial composition having phytic acid as a main component, however, this is for disinfecting and algiciding algae and layer farming inhibition bacteria living in sea water and fresh water, and when used for food poisoning bacteria, not only the effects are expected to be insignificant, but there is also a limit in that excessive phytic acid needs to be used.
Accordingly, technologies with phytic acid having excellent potential as a natural antimicrobial agent as a main component, and capable of effectively controlling bacteria such as acid resistant EHEC with a small phytic acid amount have been required.